As someone who grew up in the church, whose grandparents were founding members, and who went on to carry the church’s values into his own life of ministry, Bill gives us funny and touching stories of what we’ve shared, as well as good grounding in what matters most in holding us together and giving us vision and purpose as a particular community of God’s Kingdom. May we be full of celebration for what has been, thankfulness for what is, and hope for all that is still to come.

The hope of eternal life is profound, but we also hold onto the promise of what Jesus taught us to pray about God’s Kingdom being “on earth as it is in heaven,” and a sense that salvation isn’t something to wait around for as much as it is something to be transformed by and richly experience in our lives now. How does God demonstrate that reality to us in scripture and invite us to participate in this understanding with all reality in our lives all the time?

God offers us salvation by grace that we can participate in through faith, but don’t have to worry about earning, and we can learn to let go of arrogance about our worthiness over against others. What helps us root ourselves in this grace and find joy in the ongoing faithful life of salvation God offers that we might have peace even in the face of struggle and knowing our mortality?

It is a great temptation to give in to the sunk cost fallacy that because we have stuck our heels in about one problem or another, we should just stay stubborn and stuck even when we realize a harm and see a possibility for transformation God is calling us to. Admitting our quagmire and letting go of something we’ve clutched to can feel like a death, but Easter reminds us that Jesus’ death and resurrection give us a chance at something better for all darkness, sin, oppression, failure and misguidedness if we just trust to let go of them before God and take up the new life Jesus offers.

The role of prophet is a powerful one throughout all of scripture. There can be a lot of conceptions of what prophets do, including being mainly a sort of inscrutable predictor. In the life and ministry of Jesus, though, we can see what the prophetic office is truly most about: embodying, making real, God’s words and movement of eternal character into the deepest hopes and struggles of any particular moment and circumstance. God showed a different quality of loving, serving authority to the people returning from exile through the prophet Zechariah, Jesus embodied it again in the face of the Romans at Palm Sunday, and we can trust that God will continue to speak to and show us how to embody transformation where it is needed most today.

It often seems like our weaknesses, failings, and the things others would cast us out for are completely determinative - even the tiniest bit ruins everything and is insurmountable. God shows us many examples in scripture, though, of how the power of holiness and grace can overcome any force that we have otherwise assumed is to unclean or without hope for reconciliation or new life to be possible. If we can take on that prophetic vision not only for ourselves in turning to God, but in how we view and treat each other as followers of Jesus - what transformation could come to our world?

When we go through trials and struggles, part of our experience is often that we feel alone and hopeless, or even like things may just end with us. When we can see ourselves as part of God’s overarching movement in the world, though, that can help change perspective and help us find hope. Not only can we see even our difficulties as part of a larger, beautiful picture of salvation, but the connections God brings with others of all backgrounds, experiences and generations become both the means of and a destination of hope and transformation.

One of the apparently central tasks for the people of Judah returning from exile was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. How strange, then, for a prophetic word from God to come that “Jerusalem will be a city without walls,” instead bounded by God acting like a fire that has room for lots of people from lots of places and backgrounds. How can we have our resources and programs be so shaped by God’s vision and values that might also find God’s refining spirit defining what choices we make with “bricks and mortar,” and in the priorities of what is most important in the salvation we live and share?

God commonly uses imagery of refining and washing to describe the process of repenting and being restored to fully participating in salvation life when we have wandered and been exiled. That process might sound encouraging and empowering, or challenging and stretching - especially depending on what position we find ourselves in relative to God’s vision and purposes. God also regularly points to the positions we can find God and salvation life - with those who are usually left out and cast aside, making a new kind of community (rather than being with those seeking power and privilege). Refining ourselves to that position can take a lot of transformation, but it is ultimately good for us and everyone.

A lot of modern stories in culture highlight the tension from seemingly competing commitments, like making decisions for business sustainability at a hospital versus making them based on the ideal plan for care. Similar tensions have been a part of the life of the people of God as well - like apparent tensions between what people associate with the “spiritual” and what people associate with the “practical” and how our faith is supposed to operate in both. Salvation life that is generative and brings out the fruit of the spirit recognizes that our God of all creation holds both together, and so our faith and ministry is meant to as well.

God frequently uses the imagery of a refiner’s fire to the people of Israel and Judah in trying to encourage repentance before the exile, and in giving a sense of meaning to the exile and return. Often our experience of ashes is painful, but can also remind us that God moves in our frailty for transformation and thriving. Like the exiles, even our ashes can also become the bricks and mortar of the new salvation life God leads us in rebuilding. May our ashes to ashes and dust to dust that we sit with this year be so meaningful.

Even the most impressive collective movements are made up of individuals with unique circumstances and needs. There is always a tension in balancing personal needs and participating in a larger mission and vision. Sometimes it is tempting to focus most on our preferences, power and advantage, but that can ultimately leave things for everyone undone and undermine our own thriving because something best for everyone is missed out on. Examples throughout the Bible, like those returning from exile and the early church, give examples of how participating in the Kingdom of God includes and empowers all individuals and cultivates connection and thriving for all led by the God who brings us together.

There has been a growing acknowledgment of the wisdom that when we’re in the middle of trauma and pain or panic, it is very challenging, and even likely to make things worse, if we feel pressure to do something for others when we haven’t been cared for and built up our capacity ourselves. Yet, we can also end up stuck in feeling overwhelmed and missing out on healing and transformation that comes from having what we have to share acknowledged and given an outlet. We can be defensive, or contentious to try and protect ourselves, but God gives the gift of interdependent community in the Kingdom where God’s love empowers us to care and be cared for and find transformation together.

When things feel overwhelming and difficult, our impulse can often be to seek our own control, our own comfort, our own preferences most of all - but that type of white-knuckling can actually just pull us in more destructive directions. That’s why navigators learn to “trust their instruments” and we as disciples can learn to trust God’s movement and God’s values for how we all thrive together in the Kingdom rather than just grasping for our own advantage as what will make everything ok.

In previous times for the people of God that we see in scripture, learning to both reflect back on how God has walked with us and discerning what is ahead that God is guiding us through brings with it important communal practices. Perhaps surprisingly, these can be full of complicated emotions rather than just triumphalist. We can not only trust that God will help us process through emotions of mourning or worry or repentance, but also that God will likely call us to hold our expectations loosely to be formed to the Kingdom as well - and that while that may be difficult, it is still safe… and essential for our discipleship and full experiencing of the thriving of salvation life.

Our church is entering an intriguing year as we continue to follow God’s calling of our unique identity - celebrating a legacy of 90 years as a local body, and also discerning how best to live our faith in a year promising new circumstances and resources to steward. The Bible has examples of God’s people navigating relatable (even if not exact) circumstances, like the Jewish people returning from exile to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. We can take encouragement in being able to hear from God timeless insight from such examples for our specific situations - especially about connecting with God, understanding our circumstances, and partnering with others.

Even early in his life, Jesus showed passion for being in his Father’s house, or perhaps better rendered, “being about the family business.” Since we are also invited into God’s family and to participate in the Kingdom through Jesus, the same values and practices that Jesus demonstrated (and have foundations throughout the history of God’s people) are important for our lives and faith today, too - so we can be faithful participants in the family business as well.

January 3 is Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus and it’s a great opportunity to reflect on the meaning of Jesus in our lives and in the world. Advent season reminds us that we use a range of names and titles to refer to Jesus, and to God, to try to reflect the breadth and depth of God’s character and how God works. Jesus also cared a lot about making sure disciples understood what those names are really meant to express and reflect so we are being formed by God rather than making God in our image. Those temptations can still be with us today, but so are the clarifying principles of God’s character

Genealogies can seem like dry reading, but in the bible, they can serve as really insightful examples of God’s character based on how different people are included in God’s identity that we might normally think would be expected to be relegated to skeletons in a family closet. When we see this meaning, and think about what that means for us that are also invited to be a part of God’s family, it can be transformational for our sense of self and how we extend belonging to those around us.

There is a slightly between the lines, but incredibly vital and compelling thread of comparison that weaves through the birth narratives of Jesus. We can see very different values of power and glory and authority in the contrasts like Joseph of the house and line of David and Caesar Augustus… and the Magi and King Herod. They help emphasize the difference between the humility, grace, love and lifting up in the salvation that God offers, and the oppression, advantage, exploitation and dehumanization of earthly rulers that claim to be best. And so we must also wrestle with the comparison of who we sometimes desire Jesus to be - in the image of such earthly rulers - and who Jesus actually came to be - which will transform our expectations, our values, our lives and all creation.